BMAT - A Binary Matching Tool for Stale Profile Propagation

A major challenge of applying profile-based optimization on large real-world applications is how to capture adequate profile information. A large program, especially a GUI-based application, may be used in a large variety of ways by different users on different machines. Extensive collection of profile data is necessary to fully characterize this type of program behavior. Unfortunately, in a realistic software production environment, many developers and testers need fast access to the latest build, leaving little time for collecting profiles. To address this dilemma, we would like to re-use stale profile information from a prior program build. In this paper we present BMAT, a fast and effective tool that matches two versions of a binary program without knowledge of source code changes. BMAT enables the propagation of profile information from an older, extensively profiled build to a newer build, thus greatly reducing or even eliminating the need for re-profiling. We use two metrics to...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2000
• Where: JILP
• Authors: Zheng Wang, Ken Pierce, Scott McFarling
• Keywords: JILP 2000, Large, Large Real-world Applications, Profile Information